Even though media censorship there is pretty well documented, China is about to get its first gay-themed TV show.

The hour-long show, Tongxing Xianglian (which means Connecting Homosexuals) will air online at www.phoenixtv.com, and some segments will broadcast on television.

The show’s producer, Gang Gang told the Associated Press:

"while gays have appeared on Chinese TV shows, this will be the first show to focus on gay issues and the first with an openly gay host, AIDS activist Didier Zheng. Gang said he hopes the Beijing-based show will improve public understanding of Chinese gay people.

"There are many people in China's gay community, but people don't have a deep enough understanding about this community. This community faces a lot of trouble and difficulties. They face a lot of pressure," Gang said.

The new show will explore homosexuality from legal, parental and sociological perspectives, dealing with issues like gay marriage, Gang said.

Zheng, college educated in France, said that he thought gays faced less discrimination in China than in the West because of Christian beliefs. The extent to which the show will be subject to Chinese government censors remains to be seen.

Does Beyonce remind you of your favorite drag queen?

I have been saying so for years. I was even more convinced when I saw the Déjà Vu video from her latest album, B’day. In the video, Beyonce takes every move, every gesture, and every dance step way over the top. She performs not so much as if there’s a camera in front of her, but as though she were in a crowded bar, lip-synching and dancing like her rent depended on the tips she was going make by 2am when the show is over.

Continuing in her drag-a-licious video trend (and pushing the lines of being over-exposed), Beyonce just released 4 new videos on the net from the 10-track CD.

(READ ON to get more info and view one of Beyonce's new videos!)

In keeping its tradition of getting the jump on gay firsts, San Francisco radio just got more gay.

Energy 92.7, a dance music station, has just launched Fernando and Greg in the Morning, America’s first openly gay morning show duo on commercial radio. In a release from PR Newswire the morning show duo talks about how they got started:

"Our show really happened by accident," said Fernando Ventura. "We've known each other for over ten years from when we were working together in Texas. When I got offered the job in San Francisco with Energy, there was a definite need for content and Greg was a natural fit."

Greg Sherrell, known on air as "Greg, the Gay Sportscaster," started calling in as a guest to Fernando's morning show to talk about sports. "It really started with Barry Bonds and the whole BALCO scandal," said Greg." When newspaper headlines are screaming about men injecting each other in the butt, a gay sportscaster has a lot of material to work with, and it just grew from there."

Not in San Fran? Check out Fernando and Greg on the following video, or stream the show from the website weekdays 6am-10am PST.

It's official. America is obsessed with gay men. This weekend, Will Ferrell's comedy, Blades Of Glory, tops the weekend box office, raking in over $33 million.

The film explores the ways in which homophobia gets in the way of a straight male figure skating duo from doing there best work. They learn to overcome their fears of man-on-man intimacy in order to dazzle crowds with double axles and triple-luxes--while wearing sequins and spandex.

I haven't seen the film. But I have seen enough of the trailers and clips on TV over the last several weeks to get the premise.

But I think I am going to check this one out. A review I saw yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning helped allay my worries that this film would be just another Hollywood frat boy flick with prat falls, farts and gay jokes.

My fellow AfterElton writer and associate editor Brian Juergens wrote a review of Blades, and also (quite eloquently) responds to this very issue:

Was there a parade of mincing stereotypes? Absolutely. But oddly enough, none of the ridiculous characters was gay or was intended to be perceived as gay. Was the audience laughing at the few gay characters the film actually featured? Yes — because these characters were teaching the others about how dated and pathetic their own machismo-laden perceptions of masculinity really were.

But were Ferrell and Heder headlining a project that treated gay men as cannon fodder just to get a few cheap laughs? Absolutely not. In fact, I would argue that Blades of Glory is one of the most relentlessly clever and keenly perceptive comedies ever made about straight-male bonding, fear of intimacy, and masculinity — and figure skating, naturally.

Most of our favorite gay weekly/monthly mags haven't posted reviews yet, but you can read what the mainstream papers are saying at Meta Critic.

Have you seen it? What were your impressions? Is this a step forward or a step backward?

Puerto Rico native Ayinde Castro, 5-star celebrity makeup artist, is one of the many gay men working behind the scenes that keep Hollywood in motion. In our conversation, Castro talks about becoming one of the most sought after makeup artists in the industry, working on hip-hop video sets, and how homophobia almost kept him from his destiny.

Meet Ayinde Castro, celebrity face-beater.

AE:So when did you finally decide to get into the business?

AC: It finally happened when I was watching Full Frontal Fashion and saw an Alexander McQueen fashion show, the makeup was stellar and overshadowed his clothes, at least in my head...I went out the next day and got a job at MAC. I immediately landed the gig--lying my way through the resume.

I bull**** my way through the whole thing but my first sale was $900 dollars, the business degree came in handy. The manager saw that my makeup skills were perfectly deplorable but my sales were fierce, so he gave me a crash course in makeup.

My first industry job that I bull**** my way into was for a David LaChapelle cover shoot, and from then on I began working with celebs...not that easy of course, it's a very difficult profession to break into (the industry part).

But I had worked in a beauty salon in Puerto Rico and hated the experience and anything associated with gay men's professions; floral design, pastry chef, designer, stylist, makeup before I made it to this point.

AE: How did you learn to overcome that?

AC: Making men and women feel their best made me feel like a little colour doctor and immediately those feelings disappeared. Then I discovered a myriad of straight male makeup artists in the industry and realized that as a gay man, I still have one over them...

AE: And what's that?

AC: Makeup as we know is all parts psychological and when a woman is being made up by a gay man she realizes that we have her best interest at heart. With straight men, the client might feel reserved. Female clients are not immediately prone to trust other women either.

AE: If you had to say what the "Ayinde" style is...what is it? How do you describe it?

AC: What sets me apart from the rest of the makeup artist out there: my style is natural with strong but seamless contours a favorite among many celebrities... my finish is incredibly lacquered without overshadowing the individual.

Model: Omahyra. Photo by: Pieter Henket

Click the READ MORE link to find out about Ayinde's celebrity clients and a homophobic incident on a video shoot!

Puerto Rican pop star Ricky Martin is standing up for gay musicians to be able to come out of the closet.

In a recent interview the bon-bon shaker gave in prep for his upcoming US "Black and White" tour, Martin was asked about Mexican singer Christian Chavez of the group RBD, who recently came out of the closet.

"Life is too short to live closed up, guarding what you say," Martin said. Christian "has to be free in many aspects. I wish him much strength."

There has been speculation about Martin's sexuality over the years, which he has neither confirmed nor denied.

22 year-old Chavez on the other hand was busted when photos surfaced earlier this month of him and his partner getting hitched in Canada.

"Certain photographs were released that show a part of me, a part I was not prepared to speak of in fear of rejection, of criticism," Chavez said on the band's website.

Here's a clip from The View of Barbara Walter's interviews with celebrities (including Martin) whom she's asked "So what's the deal with the gay rumors?"

Lately at AfterElton we have been keeping you abreast of music by some of our most well known gay/friendly artists like Elton John, MIKA, and our favorite divas. So I wanted to point you towards some other queer artists who have new projects out or on the way that you should check out!

Sacha Sacket, a 28yr old L.A.-based singer songwriter is soon releasing his third CD, Lovers and Leaders.

"Although it's a love album, the theme is really about my battle not to succumb to it," said Sacket. "I guess I equated love with losing power, losing my goals and aspirations. I was trying to find the balance between honoring someone else and myself, whle at the same time--finding where the edges meet."

Sacket's pop sound is reminicent of Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, and Jeff Buckley.

At the other end of the queer music sound spectrum is Limp Wristed, a progressive house artist who makes music for the dancefloor (and the runway). The new single What's the T? and I'll Cut You B****, Limp Wristed will have you serving the children on the dancefloor. Limp Wristed has the camp sensibilities of RuPaul and the ferocity and edge of Kevin Aviance and Grace Jones.

With lyrics like--

"I've got my radar set to gaydar and my radar says that you are---So what's the T?"

--Limp Wristed is pure twisted.

My favorite divas have been in full force support for the gay community this week!

Jennifer "Dreamgirls" Hudson presented a GLAAD Award to Patti Labelle for her tireless work in support of the gay community.

Not to be outdone, our favorite 007 diva Dame Shirley Bassey (the only person to sing more than one Bond theme) has decided to auction several of her gowns to raise money for Barnardos, an LGBT youth organization in Great Britain. Bassey told Pink News

The outfits and accessories I have donated to Barnardo's hold some very special memories for me...I very much hope my fans will bid for them and raise money for the critical work Barnardo's does with vulnerable young people in the gay community, helping to protect them from abuse and discrimination. Please dig deep everyone!"

The event will be hosted this Friday in London by the UK's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Julian Bennett.

Too young for to remember Shirley Bassey's Bond themes like GoldFinger and Diamonds Are Forever?

Well, that's Ms. Bassey's voice sampled on Kanye West's recent single Diamonds from Sierra Leone.

Most recently Bassey also worked with electronic music phenomenon Propellerheads, and had a 1998 dancefloor hit with the singe History Repeating. Here's the video:

Before there was house music, disco or showtunes, the gays had classical music. With all those ruffles, short-pants, and powdered wigs, what's gayer than classical music? It's all the boys had before Donna Summer.

Not only is classical/orchestral music so gay, several of the world's top modern composers were also! And the Oregon Symphony in Portland is performing an evening of three queer composers this weekend--Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein. The evening's program is called Voices of the Spirit.

The symphony's conductor Carlos Kalimar (not gay) told the Williamette Week, says "we didn't think about that when we created the program."

Maybe not. There aren't any references to this being the theme of the evening in the program notes. But there are a few words about the ongoing controversy surrounding Tchaikovsky's death in 1893, noting,

"His brother and biographer Modest claimed Tchaikovsky died from cholera contracted after drinking unboiled water; others claim he committed suicide to avoid the publicity of his advances to a male student. There is no clear evidence one way or the other, and the debate will no doubt continue."

Other gay composers throughout history include Merce Cunningham, Billy Strayhorn, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and Aaron Copeland.

AfterElton told you in February about a play that will redfine the term passion play. Or at least the early Christians who invented the artform wouldn't have had this in mind. Matthew Passion, written by gay playwirght Phil Hall opens during the Easter season in New York City this Thursday.

It is described as "the story of the passion of Christ; the story of Matthew Shepard being picked up at a bar in Laramie, Wyoming, beaten and left for dead on a hillside; and the story of a middle-aged HIV positive survivor who has outlived his life expectancy. Although the three stories take place in three different locations, and are thousands of years apart, they all reflect one another and converge in the final scene."

Not sold? Well, maybe the hot stills from the production might do it.

...and, umm...